Ingredients
- 300g thick round spaghetti, Durham wheat is preferred as this is an eggy dish, but egg pasta is still fine
- 150/200g Guanciale, You can use bacon or pancetta but it’s not quite as good
- 4 egg yolks
- 90g Pecorino Romano, You can use parmesan but it’s not quite as good
- Black pepper, as much as required
- ½ tablespoon Rock Salt (or just salt)
- 3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced, and half a tsp of chilli flakes
Method
- Slice the guanciale into thin strips. In a large, dry fry pan on a medium heat, cook the guanciale until its golden brown and crispy. Low and slow. Once it’s done remove from the pan and set aside. Save the fat that’s rendered out in the pan ‘cause you’re gonna use it later.
(if you’re using bacon or pancetta, you might need a li’l bit of olive oil to help it along at the beginning)
- In a large pot, boil water and add ½ a teaspoon of salt, then add spaghetti and cook as per timing instruction on the pack.
Use dry pasta for this recipe, because you need some starchy pasta water later on.
- Place 3 egg yolks and place in a bowl and whisk together with about half a teaspoon of ground black pepper. (Save the egg whites for some clever baking or something cool like that - you can freeze egg whites!
- Finely grate the Pecorino into the egg bowl and mix until it becomes a thick creamy texture. You can pour in some of rendered guanciale fat at this point if you want. It adds to the silkiness. You can also add a table spoon or two of pasta water to the mix, but trickle it in gradually so you don’t cook the eggs. It’s needs to temper.
- Now get a medium heat under the guanciale pan.
- Cook garlic and chilli flakes in the pan for a few minutes being careful not to burn the garlic. You can add a splash of pasta water to stop the garlic burning.
WHEN YOUR PASTA IS NEARLY DONE, SCOOP OUT ABOUT A CUP FULL OF THE PASTA WATER AND SET ASIDE
DON’T DRAIN YOUR PASTA!
- When your pasta has about one minute to go, use tongs to add the pasta to the pan with a splash of pasta water, and mix it through for the remaining minute so the pasta kinda fries in a guanciale fat/pasta water mix.
- Now take the pan off the heat and slowly start to mix the egg mixture through. Keep it moving so the egg doesn’t scramble. Add some more pasta water and keep on mixing, Add the guanciale and keep on mixing. You will see the egg/pecorino/pasta water start to form a luxurious cream. The pasta will absorb more liquid than you think so add a bit more pasta water if it starts to look a bit dry. Give it a generous hit of ground black pepper and you’re good to go.
Some people like keep some guanciale strips aside, and to the top once its plated with a bit more finely grated pecorino. Up to you.
